[GIS] Destriping Landsat Images

algorithmlandsatraster

I am working with Landsat 7 ETM+ SRC-off imagery. I'm doing some land-cover classification for a place in Kenya. My problem is the no-data stripes in the image.

Is there a way in which I can interpolate data for such 'empty' areas using the neighbouring pixels?

Best Answer

There are multiple "gap fill" techniques which essentially take multiple L7-SLC off scenes and combines them to create a gap free image. This may or may not work for you application. For land classification it should be acceptable, assuming you can find other L7 scenes of a similar vintage.

You should be very aware of what these procedures are doing and be sure they are acceptable for your use case. Generally, this is better than any interpolation method since the "gap fill" pixels would simply be older, not entirely made up.

If you are working with crop classification this may not be acceptable, since even a few days can significantly alter the signature of vegetation.

The USGS has a great starting point for "gap fill" procedures http://landsat.usgs.gov/using_Landsat_7_data.php.

Tools such as ERDAS Imagine and ENVI have native tools to tackle this problem.

-Tim